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Fractal shifts and esthetic rifts: climate change and emotional well-being

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Abstract

Climate change threatens not only the material bases of human societies but also is likely to harm human psychological/emotional well-being. One aspect of this emotional harm may come from how the esthetic properties of environments—especially those stemming from the composition of predominant vegetative cover and cloud patterns—change in regions around the world with shifting climatic patterns. Research has established that humans respond to the fractal dimension of scenes, and that our innate “fractal fluency” leads us to prefer middle-range fractal complexity. Thus, the consequences of climate change for human emotional well-being may vary across regions depending on how the fractal character of landscapes and cloudscapes evolves under new climatic regimes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403, USA

    Richard P. Taylor

  2. Department of Sociology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403, USA

    Richard York

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  1. Richard P. Taylor
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  2. Richard York
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Both authors contributed equally to the conception and design of this study. Both authors contributed equally to writing the manuscript and approved the final version.

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Correspondence to Richard York.

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Taylor, R.P., York, R. Fractal shifts and esthetic rifts: climate change and emotional well-being. Climatic Change 173, 16 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-022-03414-y

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